Those accolades took the form of a $10,784 pay increase Tuesday, boosting Mooney's salary from $107,847 to $118,631 a year plus benefits and making him one of the highest paid government officials in the state.

County Administrator Floyd Johnson recommended the raise "predicated upon what I think was meritorious service over the past year."

Mooney has shaved $62 million off the cost of the $262.5 million airport job.

"It obviously provides a great deal of satisfaction and simply a stimulus to do better," Mooney said of the commission's unanimous vote.

"Very frankly, it places a lot of weight on my shoulders because you don't want to fail to do well for those who have confidence in you," Mooney said.

He called his lucrative job unique.

"It's a public endeavor that incorporates business policies in performing what is largely a business function," he said.

Mooney said he has received at least three other very tempting offers since he started working on the airport project.

"I have simply decided that you have a commitment to take a project like this through to the point where it's either concluded or the success is assured where there is no question," he said.

Mooney is paid as if he were a private contractor because the airport project will end in 1987, though County Commissioner Nicki Grossman said Tuesday, "I don't think Mr. Mooney's job with Broward County should be considered finite."

Johnson is paid under a special contract arrangement different from the contract given most county employees, Commission Auditor Norman Thabit said.Thabit and Chief Counsel Sue Delegal also will become contract employees on the same basis on Oct. 1. The contract offers benefits identical to those of regular employees but without an automatic annual cost-of-living increase.

Commissioner Ed Kennedy said Mooney's salary cannot be compared with the pay of other government officials because Mooney is not a permanent employee.

"You probably couldn't get a man of his caliber for less," Kennedy said.

Mooney's current salary already made him the highest paid employee in Broward, topping Schools Superintendent William Leary's $93,000 annual salary.

The boost will put Mooney's pay above that of Dade County Manager Merritt Steirheim, who makes $111,176.

As director of aviation at the Massachusetts Port Authority, Mooney earned more than that state's governor.